Haiti

Haiti is a country of about 9 million people located on the eastern third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. Most (80 percent) of the population is Roman Catholic, and about half the population is estimated to practice voodoo. The population is 95 percent black, with the remainder predominantly white or mulatto. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of the population living below the poverty line and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of $1,300 in 2008. Haiti has suffered a long history of dictatorial rule and civil unrest, which has left most of the population impoverished and the state without adequate infrastructure to meet even basic health care needs.

Two-thirds of Haitians depend on the agricultural sector for their livelihood, although the country suffers from a shortage of arable land, which has led to massive deforestation and subsequent soil erosion. The country lies in the hurricane zone and is subject to other natural disasters, including flooding and earthquakes. The combination of tropical climate and lack of development leave many Haitians without access to clean water, and the state without resources to deal with common infectious diseases, which remain a major threat to life. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are a large burden on the population: 2.2 percent of adult Haitians are estimated to be HIV positive, with 120,000 people living with HIV or AIDS.

As is typical in developing countries, the Haitian population is quite young, with a median age of 20.2 years and 38.1 percent of the population aged 14 years or younger. The population growth rate is 1.8 percent, with a birth rate of 35.7 births per 1,000 population, a death rate of 10.2 deaths per 1,000, and a net migration rate of 1.2 per 1,000. The total fertility rate (an estimate of the number of children born to each woman) is 3.81. The male/female ratio is almost even: .98 males per female in the population overall, with an age-specific ratio ranging from 1.03 males per female at birth to 0.64 males per female aged 65 years and older. Life expectancy at birth is 59.13 years for men and 62.48 years for women. The level of literacy is low but similar for men and women: 54.8 percent of adult men are considered literate, as opposed to 51.2 percent of adult women.

The Haitian government spent about $12 per capita on health in 2002, providing about 40 percent of the national expenditures on health: the remainder came from outside sources or private expenditures. Haiti is classed as a Tier III or least [Page 480]developed country by the international nonprofit Save the Children, which promotes improved maternal and child health. Due to substantial missing information regarding indicators of maternal and children's health, Haiti could not be assigned an overall rank on either the Mothers' Index, Women's Index, or Children's Index, but ranks very low even among less developed countries on many indicators. The maternal mortality rate in 2000 was 680 per 100,000 live births, the stillbirth rate was 30 per 1,000 live births, and the neonatal mortality rate 34 per 1,000 live births.

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